John Beard and Dale Riser, founders of Beard+Riser

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the United States, and isn't known for being a center for architecture, but Beard+Riser are doing what they can to mark the state with some amazing architecture. Their work takes inspiration from the Delta's vernacular architectures while making the most of tight budgets. As the firm expands and adds a second office in Oxford, MS, we talk with the founders about growing a small practice in rural Mississippi.

How many people are in your practice?

There are currently 4 of us in our Greenwood office at the moment, although we’re looking to add experienced staff as we’ve opened a second location in Oxford, Mississippi and expect workload to grow over the next year.

Why were you originally motivated to start your own practice?

We saw a need in our region and were interested in offering a higher level of design to clients that we felt had been under-served. Both John Beard and I had been in other firms for several years and felt like we needed to do something to energize our own careers and really chart our own career paths.

What was the first project you guys ever worked on?

The first year or so we were working together, we did a lot of historic downtown projects for a client, Viking Range Co., which is based in Greenwood. Our first larger work as a firm was the renovation of the J.T. Hall Coliseum at Mississippi Delta Community College. It was the first public project we’d submitted for, and we successfully interviewed and were awarded that job, which was the first of a continuous 7-year relationship with the college. Each project has built on the next one. After 10 years, we've developed a nice portfolio of projects – almost 50 total projects completed in the public and commercial sector alone. We’ve also done a number of residential projects in that time as well, from small renovations to complete custom homes.

What hurdles have you come across?

Cash flow is always an issue for a small business, particularly in a relatively poorer area like the Mississippi Delta. We’ve been incredibly successful and lucky in that way, but we’ve had to learn that over our first 10 years—no one in the industry teaches their architectural interns or project managers about the business side of billings, overhead, taxes—basic financials. Recruiting competent, highly-qualified people with great design talent and keeping them here has been a challenge. That’s just part of being in the Delta, and we expect opening the Oxford office will ease that somewhat over the next several years. Consistent project load has been an issue at times, but at other times we’ve had more than enough work. We just have to work a good bit harder than firms situated in project-rich urban areas. At the same time, our location informs the type of work we do and you can see that in some of our design.

Can you expand on what it is like to have an architecture studio in Mississippi?

Our location in rural Mississippi definitely impacts the work we do. We draw inspiration from local historical precedents and other forms, even the landscape which is uniquely flat and has its own mystique. Those inspirations impact our design forms and materials – resulting in our own interpretation of Southern vernacular architecture in a modern way.

Is scaling up a goal or would you like to maintain the size of your practice?

As I said, we’re looking to grow with the opening of a second office in Oxford, but we will maintain a “slow and steady” growth pattern, so that our clients can receive the hands-on, personal service that we’ve successfully been able to deliver to them. I’ve seen uncontrolled growth in larger firms, and seen a pattern of simply adding staff when the work is there only to immediately lay them off when things slow down. We prefer a more sustainable long-term strategy that is truly studio-based. I also saw what was happening to our firm when we grew as large as 10, and John and I felt like it wasn’t what we wanted at the time. There’s a myth that you have to be large in order to deliver projects, when I think the narrative should be about efficiency. We’ve been able to stay small and deliver high-quality design and provide hands-on personal service. We have the experience at the top of our firm to be able to work that way, rather than simply delegate down the line. We’re also careful to be selective in the work we take on, so that we don’t overload ourselves. We stay focused on what we are now, and what we want to be in the future, and how that can fit with our clients’ needs.

What are the benefits of having your own practice? And staying small?

The biggest benefit is being able to decide what you want to be, develop the culture of the firm, organically or otherwise, and let the firm become an extension of your leadership. Staying small gives us the ability to really focus on the projects we take on, and as principals focus on the design and the service product that we’re delivering. 

There’s a myth that you have to be large in order to deliver projects, when I think the narrative should be about efficiency

You lose some of the support network in being small, but if you hustle and you keep your mind on the work at hand, I think it makes a better all-around experience. We don’t nearly have the waste that I’ve seen and experienced in larger firm culture. We’re lean and flexible in response to our clients—there’s an immediacy that comes with being small. It also offers our staff a better more well-rounded experience. We’ve tried to hire incredibly smart, talented people and then throw them directly into the fire so they can learn—it gives them a rich experience. Our culture has always been studio-based, so we’re flexible with comp time and work hours, we understand the need to recharge periodically. Our guiding principle is just about doing good work.